An Easter crime fiction wave is sweeping Norway |
The Easter crime wave sweeping Norway
Visitors to Norway during Easter might find the streets emptier than usual, thanks to the nation's cherished Eastertime obsession: retreating to isolated cabins to binge crime fiction.
It all began on a dark March night, long ago. Affluent tourists on the Oslo-Bergen railway chatted on their way to the ski slopes. Lights twinkled in mountainside huts as the train sped on through the night. Hidden among them, robbers chose their marks. Their escape plan: to jump off the train and ski away with the loot.
Read more about the Bergen Railway that inspired påskekrim here. The route between Oslo and Bergen takes 6.5-7.5 hours and passes glaciers, mountains, valleys and ski resorts en route.
So begins the plot of the 1923 Norwegian crime novel Bergenstoget plyndret i nat (The Bergen Train Was Looted Last Night), that kickstarted Påskekrim ("Easter crime").
Inspired by American Westerns, the book became a sensation thanks to canny marketing: its title was printed directly below the masthead of Norway's national newspaper in the days leading up to Easter. Readers mistook the book's title for a headline and the confusion generated enormous publicity – and sales. Ever since, the Easter period has become associated with crime fiction, and eventually Norwegians began celebrating by reading suspenseful stories, from murder mysteries and heists to detective tales and true crime.
And if you are in Norway in the two weeks surrounding Easter, this lust for crime is hard to miss.
"You'll see påskekrim everywhere across publishing houses, bookshops and libraries," said Merete Lie, director of the Deichman Library in Oslo. "In fact, I don’t think you'll find a single library or bookshop in Norway that does not make crime fiction easily discoverable for its customers at this time of year. We see a tremendous peak in borrowing of crime books around Easter."
The Deichman Library displays murder-themed decorations and stacks of crime fiction from around the world, as do bookshops across the nation. Shoppers will find crime novels front and centre on entry tables, and sometimes even grisly decorations like chalk body drawings on pavements and cute baby chicks holding bloody knives.
The weeks before Easter also sees Norway’s largest crime fiction festival, Krimifestivalen, a free three-day event in Oslo. Attendees and bookish travellers leave with armloads of books to read over Easter break.
But by far, the most popular way to celebrate påskekrim is by decamping to mountainside cabins over Easter break (which in Norway typically lasts up to 10 days) to read and stream crime fiction. Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple are traditional favourites, but Norwegian and Nordic Noir shows are most popular. This year’s påskekrim hit is likely to be homegrown: on 26 March, Netflix launched Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole, a nine-part series starring Tobias Santelmann as the brilliant but troubled Oslo-based detective. The release........